Creation Science Issues

Death Before the Fall of Man

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Young earth
creation science advocates have long argued against the occurrence of death before the
fall of man. There are actually two issues that we must deal with
here. The primary issue is that there was or was not death before sin.
The second issue is...did Adam and Eve's sin bring the punishment of
physical death.

First,
we will deal with the issue of animal death prior to sin. This mistaken doctrine stems from two verses in the Bible.
The first is Genesis 1:29-30, which states,

"And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it
shall be for meat. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to
every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
where-in there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was
so."

Yes, the Bible says
that God gave the green plants to all animals to eat. This is a
completely true statement. Adam and the animals could eat the plants
for food. However, nowhere does the Bible say that animals "cannot"
eat meat. There was no general prohibition against meat.
However, it's not that simple a matter. One must also consider the
location where God spoke these words.

God
was addressing Adam within the Garden of Eden, which was a unique, special
place. Eden was paradise, where there was no death, and where animals
got along with each other. It is clear from Scripture that God created
this Garden to be different from the rest of the world.

Some young earth creationists have argued that the
entire world was originally created perfect and free from death.
However, if this was
true, then
why did God plant a Garden, and place man in it? The Scriptures are
clear that the Garden was separate and distinct from the rest of the world.
We have no reason to suspect that there was no death outside of the Garden.

Also, nowhere does the Bible claim that there was no animal death before
sin…it is inferred from the Genesis text and this verse, Romans 5:12, which
states,

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

When Adam sinned, he did indeed introduce physical death (through his
expulsion from paradise) for humanity. However, this verse has nothing
to do with animal death prior to sin. There are several other good
reasons for the existence of animal death prior to man's sin.

Genesis
2:17 is God's direct instructions to Adam. God told Adam...

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.

Using
a common, literal interpretation, when Adam ate the fruit, he should
have died physically that day. Did Adam die the same day he
ate the fruit? No, he did not. There are three
possibilities. First, God lied to Adam. We know that God
cannot lie, so this cannot be the case.

There are two other possible
alternatives from which you must choose. The first is that God did not mean physical death
at all, but
spiritual. When Adam ate the fruit, he sinned, which caused
separation between him and God, or spiritual death. The other
alternative is that although the sin did not bring about instant
death, it did bring about gradual death, making man susceptible to
death. Adam and Eve, by
their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, became vulnerable to death.
Another viable alternative is that Adam did die that day. A
day to God is different than a day for us. The six creation
days were millions of years long. After the creation, God
entered His rest...the seventh day, and we are still in that day.
Thus, Adam and Eve died on the seventh day.

Ecosystem

Apparently,
young earth creation science experts are a little weak when it comes to understanding the
ecosystem and the food chain. God designed nature to be self-renewing. As
creatures die, their remains decompose, and nourish the plants. As the
plants grow, they are eaten by the animals. The animals are killed by
predators, and what is not eaten is left to decompose to nourish the insects
and plants, and the cycle starts all over. This IS the way God designed
nature. There is no reason to believe this process was different prior
to sin. The creation was made to "perfectly" renew itself through this
process.

Another reason to consider is animal design. If God never intended carnivores to eat
meat, then He would have designed them differently. For example, lions with
molar teeth for chewing plants. A lion, with sharp teeth for killing, is
not an efficient creation for the processing of plant matter. Therefore,
God’s design is flawed, because He intended the lion to eat plants, but
equipped it for killing. If you believe in young earth creation
science, then you MUST
believe in a flawed creation!

With that
said, let's examine a few creatures of God's creation that proves there was
death before Adam's Fall.

Spiders,
Snakes, and Venom

Spiders are
wondrous creatures. They spin their silk webs in order to ensnare their
victims before consuming them. How would they have survived in a pre-death
world? Would their webs have been used to catch falling leaves? No, they
could just simply go into a tree, or to the ground, to feast on the leaves.
Spiders were created with only one diet in mind...a dead insect.

Also, why were
some spiders created as venomous? What is the purpose of this venom?
They didn't need this venom to subdue the
leaves, or whatever else they were supposed to eat in the Garden. And, it
could not have been for self-defense, since there were no predators in the
Garden? In fact, the same thing goes for venomous snakes. Venom only has
one purpose...to kill. Even venoms that incapacitate are for the same
thing in the end, for once the creature is incapacitated, it is consumed.

The only
logical conclusion is that God created venomous creatures to kill their prey.
Venom serves no
purpose in a calm, friendly Garden with no death. If God did create
venom,
according to the young earth model, then His creation was not perfect, as
the venom served no purpose.

Venus
Fly Trap

I'm sure
everyone has seen one of these carnivorous plants. Before the fall of man,
did it catch falling leaves? It certainly could not have evolved this trait
after the Garden.

Other plants
that eat insects are the Sundew and the Pitcher Plant. These plants live in
wet places, where there is poor nitrogen content in the soil. The plants
get the nitrogen they need from the insects.

Bats

Bats feed off
of flying insects. Before the Fall, did they use their natural radar to
catch falling leaves and eat them?

The
previous three examples list insect-eating organisms. Many young earth
creationist organizations now teach that insects do not fall in the category
of "nephesh creatures." Their current teaching is that death
before sin only applied to these nephesh creations.1
This term is generally applied to land-dwelling creations, which Adam named
in Genesis 2:19. By picking and choosing the type of creatures this
"no death before sin" rule applies to, young earth creationists avoid
problems such as insect and micro-organism death. The "nepheshrule" of interpretation allows them to ignore clear evidence that
insects died before the Fall.

Sea Lions, Seals, and Walrus (and
Penguins)

All of these
marine mammals feed on fish. To get around this argument, young earth
creationists could again claim that fish are not "nephesh creatures,"
since they were not named by Adam.

This list
could go on for many pages. But, I'm sure you get the point already.
There was clearly death before sin. Young earth creationists resort to
the "nephesh" rule in order to avoid any problems, picking and
choosing which creatures are truly "nephesh" and which ones are not.
Naturally, if the evidence for an organism's death contradicts the young
earth view, the organism is said to be non-nephesh.

Conclusion

According to
the young earth creation science, there is no death before sin. However, why did God
create creatures designed specifically for killing? God is perfect, and his
creatures in the Garden would have been created perfectly to fit into the
ecosystem. Venom has no purpose but to kill. According to the young-earth
model, the "perfect" animal created by God would not need venom. Yet
venom exists. Young earth creationism cannot explain this.

This is not so much an issue of old earth / young earth, as it is about
biblical interpretation. This debate stems from their inaccurate assumptions that "death
before sin" equates to animal physical death as well as human physical
death.

1
answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/bad_things.asp

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Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for
Christ because the Church always preached a message that was
contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured
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Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth.
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